Surplus for East Kent Hospitals

FINANCE: East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said it finished the last financial year with a surplus.

The FT has published a draft “forward plan strategy document for 2012-13”, which was delivered to the trust’s governors meeting in May.

It stated: “Financially, in 2011-12 the trust maintained its [Monitor] risk rating of 4, and generated a surplus of £8.8m.”

The plan also sets out the trust’s financial ambitions for the current financial year.

“The board accepts that the only way to retain a low level of financial risk is to increase income, improve efficiency and therefore profitability and to increase liquidity by prudent financial behaviour,” the plan said.

“Against this backcloth, the trust intends to achieve an EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization] of 6.8 per cent (£33.3m), a surplus of 1.5 per cent (£7.3m) and retain its current financial risk rating of 4.”